erived from the Aramaic once spoken in Mesopotamia and into what is now Syria, Turkey, and Iran, Syriac became a primary vehicle especially for Eastern Christian texts around the 5th century CE. Syrian and Lebanese Christians who used Arabic in daily life but Syriac in church began emigrating to New York from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century. They established the Charitable Syrian Orthodox Association in 1895, and unified their community with the construction of Boerum Hill's St. Nicholas Cathedral. Paramus, New Jersey is also home to a Syriac Christian community, centered around the local Archdiocese.